Le Figaro Marseille
In the small, packed room of the Aix-en-Provence Court of Appeal, Hubert Falco keeps his gaze fixed on the ground, shaking his head when the president reads the facts with which he is accused.
The man who was mayor of Toulon for years was sentenced at first instance to three years in prison and ineligibility for having benefited in particular from free meals prepared especially for his wife and himself by the community, while he did not he was no longer president.
Meals stored according to investigators in a dedicated fridge, giving the case the name of
“Falco’s fridge”.
“Every time I went to the general council to work, I ate in the cafeteria,”
admits Hubert Falco at the bar, who at the very beginning of the investigation had denied the facts before partially admitting them at first instance.
At the end of the morning I went to my office at the Entraides association which helps former general councilors and their families.
And I had lunch among the staff.”
Frugal meals, often composed according to him of a slice of ham, rice, yogurt and compote.
Lunches from which Hubert Falco admits having benefited without spending a single cent.
“
I understood that it was illegal in police custody,”
continues the former minister.
When I was eating the meal, I never would have thought that it was illegal.
Otherwise, I wouldn't have done it!
No no no !"
The department was not very far from where I lived.
It was more practical
Hubert Falco, former mayor of Toulon
However, as mayor of Toulon, Hubert Falco, who explains
“not paying for his meals”
would have had plenty of time to eat in his town hall, as the president of the court points out.
“The view was certainly better
,” says the former councilor.
But if Hubert Falco had lunch, according to him, twice a week in the cafeteria of the departmental council of which he was president for eight years, it was out of
“ease”
.
“I ate much faster in the cafeteria and that suited me
,” he explains.
“And the department wasn’t too far from where I lived.
It was more practical.”
Pushed by his lawyer, the former mayor even claims to have made savings for his constituents.
“The meal at the departmental council costs six euros,
” he calculates.
A meal at the town hall will cost more!”
An illegal habit
“The facts that are accused are a system of exercising authority in this case
,” asks General Counsel Régine Roux.
“I didn't have a fridge at the general council of Var
,” defends Hubert Falco, also accused of having had his pajamas washed at the community's expense.
“I don’t wear pajamas
,” he retorts after having indicated that he only has his suits washed at the dry cleaner’s, and at his own expense.
“I know what I did and I know what I didn’t do,”
insists Hubert Falco.
I take responsibility for what I did.
It's a mistake.
There were sanctions for that, but it’s difficult to take responsibility for what I didn’t do.”
“Hubert Falco did not benefit from any favors
,” insists the former mayor of Toulon, suddenly speaking of him in the third person.
“We see an illegal habit,”
accuses Me Jorge Mendes Constante, UNSA lawyer, civil party in this case.
This is the behavior of elected barons who were very good elected officials but who committed criminal acts.”
“The facts may seem minimal in their materiality
,” adds Mr. Alain-David Pother, lawyer for Anticor and also a civil party
.
By hearing so much about rigged markets, we lose our reason for everything.
But this is not normal!
We can't eat for free in the canteen like that!
It is not the social purpose of the local community to go and feed the former leader!
We have trivialized what seems to be obvious.
An elected official does not live on the backs of his community!
An exemplary career, an exemplary life.
Does having this historical credit as a Baron of Var that Hubert Falco has authorizes him to do what he did?
Falco pleads “demolition company”
“Hubert Falco must not be a handicap”
, claims the former mayor who poses as
“a citizen like any other.”
“I am aware of having been a victim of the Falco label which served many people and did me a disservice.”
For his part, as in the first instance, the former mayor has a more political vision of this issue, fabricated according to him by a political opponent on the same side as him.
“A demolition company existed
,” accuses the former minister who joined the cause of Emmanuel Macron a few years ago.
“I am willing to support the president in Paris, but his troops down there must not demolish me,”
he loses his temper at the bar.
Proof that the political issue in this matter is intrinsically linked to the legal issue for someone who only aspires to one thing: to be able to become mayor of Toulon again.
“My happiness, my pleasure, is to put myself at the service of the city that I love,”
says dejected Hubert Falco
.
I don't understand."
On Tuesday, the question of Hubert Falco's ineligibility or possible return to political life will undoubtedly be at the heart of the attorney general's requisitions which will close the trial.